{"id":2311,"date":"2017-06-14T10:26:12","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T10:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/?p=2311"},"modified":"2017-06-14T10:26:12","modified_gmt":"2017-06-14T10:26:12","slug":"7th-june-tashkent-to-samarkand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/?p=2311","title":{"rendered":"7th June – Tashkent to Samarkand"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning we leave Tashkent on a 308 km drive to Samarkand, driving through a farming area on an expressway.\u00a0 We pass through an area that has a lot of storks & they nest up on poles & electricity towers.<\/p>\n

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Later we see wheat being harvested & canola being grown around a town called Mullabaloo and we thought for a moment we are back in Oz, but then we see some yurts and are reminded that we really are in Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

Driving into Samarkand is very colourful with flags flying and lovely tree lined streets with colourful gardens.<\/p>\n

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We get the usual toot from passing cars with big gold smiles & waves. \u00a0One car stops next to us & asks us if we’re Americano, & we reply no Australian & we get the thumbs up 👍 & even bigger smiles. The next moment the front seat passenger starts opening a plastic bag on his lap & \u00a0removes a warm loaf of round bread which he passes over to Kay. As it’s Ramadan they are being more generous than normal as we have found on several occasions.<\/p>\n

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After we arrive at our hotel & have a quick bite for lunch of our lovely bread we are taken on a tour by bus to the Registan Square & the Gur Emir mausoleum.<\/p>\n

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First we visit the Registan Square or Desert Square which was restored after Uzbekistan became independent, and it is absolutely magnificent. The Square is comprised of 3 Madrassahs or places of learning as Samarkand was the centre for learning in Central Asia when they were built.<\/p>\n

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The Ulugbek Madrese \u00a0was built in the 15th<\/sup> century by UlugBek who was the ruler at the time and an astronomer & mathematician. \u00a0UlugBek was a grandson of the great ruler Amir Temur. \u00a0Samarkand was the learning place for astrology in Central Asia.<\/p>\n

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Opposite the Ulugbek Madrese is the Shirdor Madrese which was built in the 17th century and is adorned with tigers, deer, human faces and the suns rays in the tiles.<\/p>\n

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The Tillya Madrese which was also built in the 17th century is between the Ulugbek & Shirdor Madreses to form a square between all three Madreses.<\/p>\n

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Inside each of the Madreses is a large courtyard surrounded by teaching rooms and dormitories.<\/p>\n

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The ceiling inside one of the halls is magnificent.<\/p>\n

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Next we visit the Gur Emir or Emir Temur mausoleum that was built by Emir Temur\u00a0for his grandson who died at an early age, but it also became his mausoleum.<\/p>\n

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The intricate work above the door is just beautiful.<\/p>\n

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Not all of the doorways are quite so grand.<\/p>\n

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The jade casket is Emir Temur’s however\u00a0the bodies are in the crypt below.<\/p>\n

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The domed ceiling is magnificent.<\/p>\n

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Tonight we have a beautiful meal complete with a very nice Uzbekistan Merlot at a local restaurant.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning we leave Tashkent on a 308 km drive to Samarkand, driving through a farming area on an expressway.\u00a0 We pass through an area […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mak.iqt.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/DSC05831.jpg?fit=3648%2C2736&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qvHY-Bh","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2311"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2343,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions\/2343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mak.iqt.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}